Thursday, September 25, 2008

Another article was written by my friend Pof. Jerick Aguilar on Sept. 9. I am posting his article for you. Credit is due The Philippine Star, Philstar.com where the article first appeared.__________________________

The sacred Islamic month of Ramadan falls exactly this September in the Gregorian calendar. Having lived in countries where Islam is the official religion (for more than four years in a row!), my Muslim friends have told me once and again how their religion, unlike any other, is “democratic” – that everyone is the same in the eyes of God. And I somehow tend to agree with them.

For one thing, during Ramadan, Muslims around the world fast. They neither eat nor drink for about 12 hours, everyday, for 30 days straight – so everyone, whether rich, poor, or middle-class, feels hungry. Having to do this every year, all of them, with no exceptions, definitely know and remember the feeling of hunger. For another, their once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca also erases their economic and social status. Prince and pauper alike – everyone has to wear the same attire and perform the same ceremonies with millions of other Muslim pilgrims. And there are no special treatment and special privileges for anyone (not even the President of Iran who was there last year), period.

Being born and raised Christian, this has made me reflect whether my “default” religion is also democratic. I remember preferring to come to Mass ten minutes late because in my parish, the lector, before the beginning of the service, would always read out the list of donors who, of course, would get brownie points in heaven while the rest of the people who didn’t (or couldn’t) donate would most likely rot in hell. So nothing democratic there.

As far as fasting or abstinence is concerned, not all Christians practice it so we are not equal in this department. The same thing also goes for our holy pilgrimages. The more money you have, the more stars your hotel and the better English your tour guide in places such as Guadalupe in Mexico, Lourdes in France, and Fatima in Portugal (which I never experienced as my limited budget had me going to these official Marian sites as an independent traveller instead of being part of a group), the better for you.

Never mind our country either. We are a democracy only on the outside as our country is run by big business tycoons and influential interest groups – not by the people. We do have elections but the results do not reflect the people’s voice but the candidate’s wallet. And everyone is supposed to be equal under the law but, as George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” so rightly put it, bribery and nepotism make some people “more equal” than the majority. Enough said.

Given that I am hung up on democracy and that neither my religion nor my country gives me the real sense of it, I was close to converting to Islam (pun intended) until I realized that I have experienced true democracy without being Muslim. I have experienced it overseas with our “kababayans” around the world. I have noticed that, especially in terms of friendship, Filipinos abroad tend to practice and reinforce the real essence of democracy.

I, a mere (international) NGO worker, was in a “barkada” once where one was a supervisor at the US Embassy and the other was a US Embassy official’s housekeeper. In our get-togethers, issues of certificates/diploma and income were never brought up – like we were colleagues with similar positions in a company. Another “barkada” of mine (in another country at another point in time) consisted of an irregular migrant who constantly jumped from one job to the next, a loyal employee of a multinational company, and a Filipino restaurant owner. Yet no one among us was above or more special than the other.

And it’s not just my group of friends who traverse artificial boundaries of educational attainment and occupational ranks. I have met people time and again who belong to a heterogeneous “barkada”. I guess one of the reasons why this is so is because we overseas Filipinos believe that we are all one and the same. Regardless of what we studied and the work that we do, all of us chose to leave our family and friends behind in order to have a much better future for ourselves and for them. We may have different degrees and varying salaries, but we have similar reasons for leaving the Philippines and staying on overseas.

Not only is there democracy among Filipino friends overseas, but also between couples. I have encountered lovers again and again who otherwise might not have paired up if they had remained in the Philippines – a cook with a manager, a data encoder (the husband) with a bank executive (the wife who has a much higher salary, of course), and a beautician (nope, not the husband) with a chief engineer, to name a few. Again, their relationship is not a question of who has more years of education and more zeroes in their payslips, but of being happy with and loving each other, regardless.

I suppose another reason for such a democracy is because a number of overseas Filipinos I met and know do not practice their real profession and, hence, do not care what kind of job the other person has. I came across a nanny in Vienna, Austria who used to be union leader in Manila, not to mention a janitor in Dublin, Ireland who was once a soldier based in our province of Batangas. And who would forget our thousands of domestic helpers who were teachers as well as doctors before who are now nurses? To reiterate, their jobs may be different from their qualifications, but their purpose to be in a foreign country is the same – to make a better life for themselves and their loved ones.

So what is the big deal about having democracy among overseas Filipinos anyway, you ask? Even bigger, I answer. The fact that Filipinos abroad look beyond someone’s education as well as salary, and treat the other person with the same importance as well as respect only goes to show that we, as citizens, are capable of practicing what our country should stand for – a democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people. The unfortunate thing though is that we practice this outside and not in our country where real democracy is needed the most. If our government officials had been overseas Filipinos, then they would have been listening to the people and satisfying the needs of the majority so that there would have been fewer and fewer of us living and working abroad.

The Honorable (pweh) Ping Lacson has fired the first shot in what will be a very interesting 2010 election. The target of his volley: The Senate President himself, Manny Villar. The problem with Lacson's volley is that it doesn't hold water. Insertions into the budget are allowed, and it was made clear to me by a PDI reporter that it was Lacson himself who signed for the insertion (which allegedly went to the road to nowhere c5 project).

So Lacson's salvo backfired and now he is claiming (and i heard him say this on radio) that it was not him but Villar who made the issue "political". Whhhaaaat??? is he out of his mind?! The moment Lacson made the accusation and was supported by Jaj-ja-ja-Jambi "mana po" Madrigal, it was already political! Now they're trying to turn the tables! Lacson was also heard over DZBB saying that it was Villar's fault for making the issue political because he (Villar) was "ill-advised" by his "advisers".

Lacson further stated that Villar could have answered the allegations directly and should not have taken it as a political attack by a colleague. My God, Ping, Villar has a far better record than you will ever have so if I were you i'd just shut the f--k up before the sh-t really hits the fan it hits you right on the face.

White PrivilegeBy Tim WiseFor those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or whoare constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it,perhaps this list will help:White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like BristolPalin, and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of yourfamily is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge youor your parents, because every family has challenges, even as blackand Latino families with similar challenges are regularly typified asirresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.White privilege is when you can call yourself a fuckin' redneck, likeBristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messeswith you, you'll kick their fuckin' ass, and talk about how you liketo shoot shit for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible,all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in sixyears like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of,then returned to after making up some coursework at a communitycollege), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment toachievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed asunfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the firstplace because of affirmative action.White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a townsmaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a statewith about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the islandof Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and peopledon't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black US.Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, meansyou're untested.White privilege is being able to say that you support the words underGod in the pledge of allegiance because if it was good enough for thefounding fathers, it's good enough for me, and not be immediatelydisqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge waswritten in the late 1800s and the under God part wasn't added untilthe 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals andterrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which youused to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerousand silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not makepeople immediately scared of you.White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of anextremist political party that wants your state to secede from theUnion, and whose motto was Alaska first, and no one questions yourpatriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and yourspouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home withher kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she'sbeing disrespectful.White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers andthe work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right ofwomen to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end tochild labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if youmerely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-monthgovernor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took incollege--you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't evenagree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and yourrunning mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on theticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made themgive your party a second look.White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support yourpolitical campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being atypical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merelyknowing some folks from the old-line political machines inChicago means you must be corrupt.White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whosepastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticizeGeorge W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitlyChristian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christiantheological principles into government, and who bring in speakers whosay the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews forrejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a goodchurch-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a blackpastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department ofDefense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreignpolicy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect onblack people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked bya reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking yousuch a trick question, while being black and merely refusing to giveone-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodgingthe question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW hasanything at all to do with your fitness for president, while beingblack and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it alight burden.And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possiblyallow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, peopleare losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. isincreasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white votersaren't sure about that whole change thing. Ya know, it's just toovague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, whichis very concrete and certain.White privilege is, in short, the problem.